The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/27/2019
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Data Theft ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Returns
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/15/2019
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
Income Taxes ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Phishing Scams ,
Popular ,
Social Security Numbers ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Returns
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/14/2019
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Data Theft ,
Email ,
FBI ,
Hackers ,
IRS ,
Phishing Scams ,
Popular ,
Ransomware
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/9/2019
/ Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Identity Theft ,
Information Security ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Tax Planning
In March 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) convened an unprecedented coalition of state tax agencies and private-sector tax industry officials to fight back against emerging criminal syndicates exploiting sensitive...more
On May 21, 2019, the City of San Francisco passed an ordinance banning the use of facial recognition software by police and other city agencies. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 in favor of the ban, which went...more
7/15/2019
/ Airports ,
Biometric Information ,
City Agencies ,
Civil Liberties ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Law Enforcement ,
Local Ordinance ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Police ,
Public Transit ,
Racial Bias ,
Software
Utah recently became the first state to enact a law specifically designed to protect private electronic information stored with third parties from collection by law enforcement without a valid warrant. Utah Governor Gary...more
5/2/2019
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Data Privacy ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Law Enforcement ,
New Legislation ,
Search Warrant ,
Subpoenas
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has described itself as “Your cop on the privacy beat” and a top federal regulator of consumer-facing data security practices. An example of how the FTC asserts itself when it comes to...more
3/26/2019
/ Administrative Appeals ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Appeals ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Security ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Internet of Things ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
The Arizona Supreme Court recently held that a defendant that used asbestos materials in its workplace before 1970 has no duty to protect the public from secondary asbestos exposure. Arizona only recognizes a duty in a...more
Another day, and another form of hacking comes to light. On June 26, 2018, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issued a security tip...more
6/27/2018
/ Bitcoin Mining ,
Blacklist ,
Computer Servers ,
Computer Virus Protection ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Mining ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Digital Currency ,
Hackers ,
Internet of Things ,
Malware ,
Mobile Devices ,
Operating System Developers ,
Passwords ,
Popular ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Software Developers ,
US-CERT ,
User Names ,
Websites
On June 22, 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the government generally needs a search warrant to track a person’s location through cell phone location records. The opinion, in Carpenter v....more
6/25/2018
/ Carpenter v US ,
Cell Phones ,
Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Electronic Records ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Exigent Circumstances ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Geolocation ,
Location Data ,
Probable Cause ,
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Third-Party ,
Warrantless Searches
While it may be better known as “Cyber Monday”, today also marks the start of the second annual National Tax Security Awareness Week (November 27 to December 1). The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax...more
11/27/2017
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Summit ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Phishing Scams ,
W-2
Since it was first announced by Presidential Proclamation in 2013, we mark each October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The Department of Homeland Security explains that, in 2017, designation is “designed to engage...more
On Friday, May 12, 2017, a malicious ransomware program known as WannaCry was discovered infecting computer systems all over the world. It set off alarms globally, and so far has infected over 200,000 computers across more...more
5/19/2017
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
FBI ,
Hackers ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Malware ,
Microsoft ,
National Security Agency (NSA) ,
Ransomware ,
US-CERT
This is the second in a two-part series addressing recent developments in state privacy and data security laws. This article addresses new laws about student privacy, enforcement/ punishment for data privacy and security...more
2/20/2017
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection Acts ,
Data Security ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HITECH Act ,
Identity Theft ,
NYDFS ,
Popular ,
State Data Breach Notification Statutes ,
Student Privacy ,
Unlawful Trade Practices Acts
For a number of years now, January 28 has been marked as “Data Privacy Day” (or, for our European friends, “Data Protection Day”), and it is often overlooked observed in the United States, Canada, India and many European...more
1/30/2017
/ Computer Virus Protection ,
Credit Cards ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Debit Cards ,
Encryption ,
EU ,
Online Banking ,
Passwords ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Privacy Settings ,
Software ,
US-CERT
On January 10, 2017, as the Obama administration draws to a close, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) released a long-awaited draft version 1.1 of its ground-breaking Framework for Improving Critical...more
Data breaches are fast becoming a fact of life. Experiencing a data breach is never a pleasant experience, regardless of how it happens – by accident, by criminal intent, or by system failure. Someone steals a company...more
In a keynote address delivered on September 27, 2016 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fifth annual Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, DC, Commerce Department Secretary Penny Pritzker conceded that “the federal government...more
Someone may be using your laptop or your desktop web camera to watch and listen to you without your knowledge. It happens, and yes, it’s downright creepy. And to think that someone may be spying on your kids that way is...more
On September 15, 2016, the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee released its summary findings of a two-year investigation concerning the unauthorized disclosures made by former National Security Agency (NSA)...more
The lengthy saga between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and LabMD, Inc. reached another turning point on July 28, 2016. The FTC issued its unanimous Opinion in which it found that LabMD’s data security practices were...more
8/13/2016
/ Actual Injuries ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
LabMD ,
Section 5 ,
Standard of Review ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On August 4, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a record-setting settlement with Advocate Health Care Network (Advocate) for multiple potential violations of HIPAA...more
8/8/2016
/ Business Associates ,
Corrective Actions ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Encryption ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
HIPAA Audits ,
HIPAA Breach ,
OCR ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI
On July 11, 2016, the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the Department of Health and Human Services issued new HIPAA guidance regarding the growing epidemic of malicious computer software known as “ransomware”....more
This is the first in a series of articles about increasingly sophisticated cyber scams, and follows several alerts issued by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). These scams include: (1) Business Email...more